Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
British households spent 66% (£226) more on petrol in 2021 than 2020 and 45% (£468) more on groceries, according to the latest figures from LifeSearch.
LifeSearch looked at spending across 16 categories, including food, entertainment, clothes and retail – and can reveal a 47% (£96.1bn) total increase in actual spending, with huge spikes in the amount spent on groceries (45%), clothes (49%), health and beauty (61%) and petrol (66%).
Brits also spent a collective £18.2bn (£344 each) on alcohol in 2021, £5.7bn more than during the 2020 lockdown, and before the pandemic, with 15% of Brits admitting they drank more in 2021 than they did the year before.
Emma Walker, Chief Marketing Officer at LifeSearch who commissioned the study said “The fact that we are spending more across all surveyed categories than last year is down to a number of factors – clothes, take out coffees, petrol etc – could be partly down to the fact that restrictions have been lifted, so people are getting out and about more, using their cars, getting a coffee on the run – but we cannot ignore the fact that the cost of living is rising steeply, and this is impacting the prices we pay and therefore, the amount we spend.”
“We can also see that while spending across all categories has risen, as a proportion of spending across all 16 categories, spending on non-essential items such as takeaways, TV subscriptions and home improvements have all fallen, suggesting the rise in cost is exactly that – a rise in cost – rather than an uplift in spending in these areas, and that actually, many households are cutting back in these areas.”
Consumer spending in 2021 vs 2020 and 2019:
| Spend type | Average spend per head each month during 2021 | Average spend per head each month during 2020 | Average spend per head each month during 2019 | Percentage increase in spending between 2020 and 2021 | Collective UK spend during an average month in 2021 * |
| Instore groceries | £85.60 | £56.70 | NA | 51%↑ | £4.5 billion |
| Petrol | £47.50 | £28.70 | £35.50 | 66% ↑ | £2.5 billion |
| Online groceries | £40.70 | £30.60 | NA | 33%↑ | £2.2 billion |
| Sky and other TV subscription | £36.80 | £26.00 | £24.90 | 42% ↑ | £1.9 billion |
| Clothes and shoes | £31.20 | £21.00 | £20.40 | 49% ↑ | £1.7 billion |
| Alcohol | £28.70 | £19.70 | £19.30 | 46% ↑ | £1.5 billion |
| Takeaway meals | £25.30 | £18.80 | £15.80 | 35% ↑ | £1.3 billion |
| Health and beauty | £21.20 | £13.20 | £11.50 | 61% ↑ | £1.1 billion |
| TV streaming | £19.60 | £13.30 | £8.90 | 47% ↑ | £1 billion |
| Takeaway hot drinks | £13.70 | £7.40 | £7.40 | 85%↑ | £725 million |
| Music streaming services | £11.00 | £6.10 | £5.40 | 80%↑ | £582 million |
| Total groceries (online and instore) | £126.30 | £87.30 | NA | 45%↑ | £6.7 billion |
| TV (streaming and subscriptions) alcohol and takeaways combined | £110.40 | £77.80 | £68.90 | 42%↑ | £5.8 billion |
